Little Red

My husband has been my greatest champion/supporter/encourager for cycling. A couple of years ago he had me get a road bike, you know, the bikes with the skinny tires, the tires that if you let yourself really think about it you think that logically this shouldn't be possible. I still don't like to think about it when I'm zooming down a hill.

Last year, with Doug's relentless encouragement, I signed up for The Little Red Riding Hood, an all-female bike ride held in Cache County. There were around 1600 women who rode last year. There were distance options to choose to ride: 30 miles, 60, 80 or 100 miles. Since I'm married to Doug, Mr. Cyclist, my only option was 100 miles. So I started doing some serious training with the hope that I could actually do this.

Doug was one of the volunteers to drive around and fix flat tires or bring back riders who had to stop for various reasons, or take pictures of us. He was a "Big Bad Wolf" and has a cool tee shirt to prove it! The ride started in Wellsville and had a couple of loops around and went north into Idaho and ended back in Wellsville. The scenery was really beautiful, when you looked up to see it.


Most of the time this is what I saw. Yes, I had my little digital camera with me to take photos along the way. My thinking being I may never do this again!


This is a moving shot of me and Karen. Our little group consisted of Karen W., Kelsie K., Sue K., and myself. I represented the 50's, Sue was the 40"s (at 49-almost 50!), Karen was the 30"s and Kelsie the 20"s. We had the age groups covered.


There came a time when I had to decide if I was going to turn right and be committed to 100 miles, or turn left and be happy with 80 miles. As you see, I turned right and this was the paint on the rode to let us know which route we were on. This 20 mile loop took us up into Idaho, this was the big commitment.


This is a backwards shot of Kelsi and Sue. The crowds have thinned out by now because of the distance. It helped to ride with a group because of the energy. And it was fun to chat along the way (I'm sure that's a girl thing).


Not to be left out of the fun, Doug brought his gear and met us at the last 15 or so miles and rode in with us. It was a lot of fun to finish with him because he has been so encouraging and has wanted me to do this for awhile. And you know, it really was a great feeling to have accomplished this.


And here we are at the end of the day, we all made it. Our riding time was around 6 hours. Riding 100 miles, or a "Century", is for a cyclist what a marathon is for runners.

Now the million dollar question is: Will I be able to do it again this year? I'm signed up. The organizers are capping the ride this year at 2200 riders, that's a big group. My greatest challenge this year (other than being one year older and a few pounds heavier) is that our winter has been so painfully long this year. The weather has only warmed up within the last two weeks and I've only been out on my bike about 6 times. I don't know how ready I'll be by June 7. But looking back at the event and remembering what a great experience it was motivates me to give it my best shot, and so I think I'll get my gear and go for a ride!